Actueel

The road to the INDEX Award finaly with the PlasticRoad

On September 1st is the award ceremony for the INDEX Award 2017. “Design to improve life” is the slogan of this largest global design award. We are extremely proud that the KWS concept the PlasticRoad is one of the finalists. Inventors of the concept Simon Jorritsma and Anne Koudstaal will travel to Elsinore next week to attend the ceremony.

Why the the PlasticRoad will improve life

A few facts:

8 billion kilograms of plastic end up in our ocean every year (estimate)

54% of plastic is still incinerated or dumped into landfills today

only 14% of plastic waste is recycled at this moment

With the PlasticRoad we will bring plastic waste back into the chain. With this we will reduce the CO₂ impact of building a road. The plastic will be recycled and used for a second time at a much higher level. This is in line with the Cradle to Cradle philosophy. This is not only the case for the plastic waste, but also for the PlasticRoad elements itself. These can be re-used and recycled into new PlasticRoad elements.

On top of that, the production, transportation and build of the roads is much more sustainable than a traditional road, because:

a road made out of PlasticRoad elements requires 80% less transport than a traditional road

the PlasticRoad is 4 times lighter than traditional asphalt roads – which reduces costs and emissions

the costs of the PlasticRoad are 50% lower in case of replacement of a traditional infrastructure solution with the current method

And above all: worldwide there are 40 million kilometers of road. The potential of the recycling and re-use of plastic in roads is huge. That is why we, together with our PlasticRoad partners Wavin and Total, are working very hard to realize the first pilot. The plan is to have a bike path made out of PlasticRoad elements by the end of this year. Hopefully we can soon share more details about the location of that first pilot.